In this episode you will hear:   (07:02) In this week’s “In the news segment”, an article from Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed. The article is entitled, “Test-optional admissions yields benefits.” The article looks at  on the topic was published in the American Educational Research Journal. The paper, by Christopher T. Bennett, who is finishing up his doctorate at Vanderbilt where he is studying this issue. The article examines the impact of test-optional admissions on nearly 100 private colleges that adopted their policies between 2005-06 and 2015-16. Mark and Dave discuss the results of Bennett’s research and Dave asks a lot of pertinent questions about how this relates to the recent wave of schools that have chosen to go “test-optional”.    (29:02) This week’s question is Bonus content. Every 5th episode Mark shares something that is burning on his heart. This week, we look at what you should be doing if you have a parent in elementary or middle school. The focus is not on how to get your kid in a selective college, although the advice Mark and Lisa give would help with this, but more as a by-product. Mark and Lisa draw on their own experience having had kids go through both of these phases.   (56:14) Mark interviews Vince Garcia and they look at why the University of California colleges were so difficult to get in this year. Mark and Vince draw a lot of their commentary from the following article which ran in the LA Times: In this final segment Mark and Vince discuss: which UC’s students have the best chance of being admitted at The yield of the UC’s and how this impacts the wait list We turn to the CSU’s and we talk about why their admission experience was so different from the CU’s Vince shares some the fields where the CSU’s have great programs Vince shares some of the underrated CSU’s and UC’s  (3 of 3)   (01:05:06) Recommended resource: The book, I’m going to college-Not You and the subtitle is, “Surviving the college search with your child”. Jennifer delanty is the former dean of admissions at Kenyon College   (01:15:53) College Spotlight: Trinity University ()   Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: . Music is by SENA HERO/Victor-Alan Weeks. If you enjoy our podcast, would you please do us a favor and share our podcast both verbally and on social media? We would be most grateful! EXCITING OPPORTUNITY We are excited to announce that Your College-Bound Kid and School Match 4U are putting together panels of current undergraduates, so parents, students and college counselors can ask the students about their college experiences. This is an excellent way to get beyond the marketing from the colleges and to learn what the student experience is really like. This survey will help us to know which colleges you are interested in meeting students from; it will also let us know what are the best days for us to host these panels. https://tinyurl.com/preferences4studentpanels